After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World-Chapter 1837: Researching the Fire

Internally, they even had the goal—and the confidence—to create a cure. It was just a matter of time.

If anyone could find the cure, it would definitely be Alterra’s Scientists and Experts.

One shouldn’t forget that three of the strongest alchemists still alive were there! This was a major stroke of luck not just for Alterra, but for the world.

Not to mention, they—Hoffen, Zenno, and Cheman—had all experienced a fire plague before!

The moment Flaret sent news, even of the possibility of the disease’s resurgence, all three masters and Althea put aside whatever they were doing and formulated a plan to finally beat this damned disease.

"How did it die out before? How long did it take? How did your previous territories handle it?" Althea asked the three alchemists, who had been briefing everyone about the known information about the disease so far.

They were currently in the Research Center’s large auditorium with every member of the research team there, as well as the more powerful aborigines like the Golds.

"People were helpless for a long time. During the first few years, it was just...chaos," Hoffen said. "We didn’t know what it was, and there were very few records of a fire plague happening before. Even in cities, there were mentions of it, but that was about it."

This was understandable. Communication wasn’t a particularly big thing here, and papyrus and other paper were expensive, and most people would not write things in detail.

The Fire Plague happened once every hundred or so years. Too many things could happen in that period of time. Back then, only the major powerhouses past level 40 might encounter it twice in their long lifetime, and even then, they might be too old and focused on cultivating to feel its presence in the latter stages of their lives.

The historians themselves could’ve been affected by various illnesses and were unable to record properly, and other records might’ve been destroyed in one of the many wars, changes of ownership, disasters, and so on that the territory must’ve gone through in between. It could also just be lost through generations.

So even if the fire plague was a big thing back then, the information was unsurprisingly limited.

Anyway, the previous fire plague had taken everyone by surprise. Because no one knew it was a serious illness at the start, no one really thought much about it.

By the time people realized it was dire, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of afflicteds were already found in a great part of the world. Then, even after people realized it was an actual issue, they did not know how to handle or contain it.

Some did better than others, others just went with the flow and asked for help that never really came.

Some went to the extreme and attempted to cut the losses at the roots, including cutting down living things, even whole families or neighborhoods.

In the end, the previous Fire Plague finished when all the afflicted either died or recovered (once affected, one would no longer be affected again, albeit the side effects could stay). During the final years of the previous fire plague, millions had perished.

By the end, there were a number of studies conducted on these things, but there were very few. After all, it was really too risky.

During these studies, a number of sacrifices had been made. Mostly, it was already afflicted who volunteered to be studied, in exchange for some gold sent to their families. Many people actually took this, which was also sad in a way.

After all the studies and experiments over the years, the healers and alchemists learned about how to avoid getting contaminated, how it spread, what = its limitations were, and even the height that the poisonous invisible smoke could rise.

This info eventually spread out, though it took years. Sadly, even then, no cure had been formulated.

Hoffen and Zaol spoke after a while. "Bleulle back then handled it by burning the afflicted at first," Zaol said, face dark. "It was a confusing time, and the Lord and his guards acted quickly."

"In other places, they simply buried the afflicted. Some of them were even alive."

Hoffen nodded. "Then it got worse, as we now know, and it spread more through the new smoke, even adding lightness to it, allowing it to float even farther.

"Others simply threw people out of the territory, leaving them to fend for themselves, which was already one of the more humane ways to go about it at the time."

"After about a couple of weeks after it landed in our territory, we found a way to slow down its spread, in hopes of us finding a solution in the meantime.

"We found that dumping them in freezing water would also help a lot, but it would also depend on whether the body could handle it."

"This discovery happened in parallel among several territories, eventually spreading out, or was also discovered independently." It was fairly common sense to handle heat with cold, after all, so this was not surprising.

"However, for several months after that, the research did not give birth to any useful results. No one dared stop studying, of course.

"The City used the Windmill of Fortune to blow it away at some point, so we know it could be redirected. Sadly, it could not handle every place, and there was also a lot of collateral damage."

Redirecting the virus didn’t kill it, after all. The windmill only protected the noble areas as well, and it passed through one of their dense neighborhoods, which ultimately made things worse.

Zenno spoke next. "Our City, on the other hand, after years of study, managed to halt its development in the body.

"This was through thousands of sacrifices and experiments." Fortunately, they were all voluntary subjects, so there was no guilt, only accomplishments.

"Once afflicted, it could not be reversed, but the person wouldn’t have to suffer burning inside and wouldn’t die. It was not perfect, but it was the best we could do."

Zenno’s City was Holt City, so it was understandable that they had the most progress.